By Ben Langley
Lando Norris took victory in the Austrian Grand Prix, with teammate Oscar Piastri finishing close behind after the two shared a thrilling early race battle.
Charles Leclerc completed the podium spots with Lewis Hamilton coming home in fourth. Max Verstappen retired from the race on lap 1 after a misjudgement from Kimi Antonelli saw the Mercedes driver take out the Dutchman.
Verstappen Unhappy at Situation
The drama began before lights out as Carlos Sainz failed to get going for the formation lap. His Williams car eventually got moving, but his car quickly caught fire to end his race before it even got started.
The delayed race start brought more drama as Piastri got himself ahead of Leclerc, but Norris fended off the Aussie driver on the opening lap. However, it was race over for the home favourite Verstappen after just three corners. Antonelli seemed to misjudge the cars ahead into Turn 3 and found himself out of control before ploughing into Verstappen. Both drivers were forced to retire as the safety car was brought out.
After the safety car period, the McLarens pulled away in dominant fashion to leave a two-horse race for the win. Piastri kept himself within DRS range of Norris. The championship leader went for the move on multiple occasions, but Norris fended him off in a thrilling duel between the two.
Norris extended his gap after the first round of pitstops and Piastri struggled to gain the time back until towards the end. Piastri’s pursuit of Norris was dealt a big blow after being forced off by Franco Colapinto with Piastri trying to lap the Alpine driver.
Piastri couldn’t make the time up as Norris took his third win of the season to close the gap in the championship to 15 points. Ferrari showed improvement with a 3rd and 4th finish for Leclerc and Hamilton respectively. George Russell finished a lonely 5th as Mercedes once again struggled in the hot Spielberg conditions. Liam Lawson converted his terrific qualifying performance into a P6 finish, holding off Fernando Alonso who finished 7th.
Gabriel Bortoleto secured his first points in Formula 1 in 8th, with Nico Hulkenberg coming through from the back to secure 9th place. Estaban Ocon completed the points scorers. Colapinto received a 5-second penalty for the Piastri incident, this comes after a mid-race crash with Yuki Tsunoda. The Japanese driver receiving a 10-second penalty for the incident as he finished dead last in what was a tough race for Red Bull.
Formula 1 returns next weekend with Lando Norris looking to continue the momentum in front of his home crowd at the British Grand Prix.
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